San Ramon Students Receive JA Company Of The Year Award

SAN RAMON, CA — Four students from San Ramon and one from Dublin scored second place for Company of the Year at Junior Achievement’s Company of the Year at the National Student Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. Junior Achievement USA is a national organization dedicated to providing young people the skills they need for economic and academic success.

The National Student Leadership Summit is an annual event for students in the Junior Achievement USA program to devise and market products or services. “Talk Blox” was developed, marketed and financed by a team of 17 students from around the East Bay who worked on the product from November to May.

A team of students from Dougherty Valley High School, California High School, and Dublin High School appeared before a panel of business leader judges at the Entrepreneurship Expo in Washington to market a product they helped develop.

The team presented a collaborative block-based game in which players remove blocks from a 3x3 and answer or pass questions and challenges that correspond with the blocks removed. Talk Blox and “SqueaKey Klean,” a team of students from San Mateo and San Francisco, were awarded “Company of the Year.”

“We are incredibly proud of the two JA teams and their achievements from this year's Summit,” Cristene Burr, President and CEO of Junior Achievement of Northern California, said in a statement. “It was amazing to see these students be recognized for their efforts and teamwork. This transformational experience has changed the trajectory of their lives forever, and I was excited for the opportunity to experience it firsthand with them in Washington DC.”

The following students from Talk Blox represented the team in D.C.:

• Samia Ahmer, Dublin High School
• Krish Bala, Dougherty Valley High
• Shruti Kale, Cal High
• Aditi Nanda, Cal High
• Sadhana Tadepalli, Dougherty Valley High

Other students from Cal High, Dublin High School, De La Salle High School and Carondelet High School were also part of the team:

• Addison Rohrer
• Aastha Agrawal
• Carsten Ristow
• Gabe Ramirez
• Isaiah Fung
• Jacob Sison
• Kennedy Shea
• Melania Severns
• Sahil Sandasani
• Sanjana Badami
• Serra Marie Inouye
• Tobi Hogan

Their mentor was Adam Cipriano of BSG Consulting.